The mysterious stranger
by golden-priestess
Summary: When Maria nearly died after the attack on her life from her kidnapper, she never knew that she would wake up in the naruto world. What will happen to her now? will she be accepted for the unusual powers she holds?  not very good at summaries.
1. prologue

Green wood forest England.-

Maria ran through the trees as quickly as she could, she jumped and gasped as she heard the sound of thunder. "I have to get Away from him." She murmured as she ran into a clearing. She span around when she heard the sound of a twig snapping behind her and fell back. The man who had assaulted her stood a few steps away from her at the edge of the clearing a knife in his right hand.

"Why did you run away from me?" he asked the frozen girl " I'm only going to make sure there's no evidence of what we did together." He added as he leapt at her the knife raised above her. He plunged the knife into her stomach, he laughed as she screamed before putting his hand over her mouth. The knife entered her stomach again and again until she felt the weakness engulf her. _ This is it, I'm dead. _She thought the last thing she saw before she passed out was a blinding flash of white light.

Memorial stone, third training ground konoha-

Kakashi Hatake stood looking at the memorial stone in front of him; he looked up quickly when he saw a blinding flash of white light coming from the trees close to him. He jumped forwards quickly taking to the trees as he headed towards the nearby clearing.

He smelt the blood before he saw her and stopped looking around him carefully before dropping into the clearing and running over. He jumped slightly as she opened her eyes and looked at him "help me, please." She murmured her voice weak.

Biting his thumb he quickly went through a series of hand signs before slamming his hand on the floor and saying "kuchiyose no jutsu" when pakkun appeared he looked at him for a moment before saying " I want you to take this message to the hokage as quickly as possible while I head over to the hospital with her. I know i should report to him first but her injuries are to serious." He said. Pakkun nodded before heading at full speed towards the hokage residence.

Hokage office, hokage residence-

The third hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk smoking his pipe as he continued to do the pile of paperwork in front of him; he smiled slightly when he saw pakkun come through the office door before frowning.

"I have a message for you from Kakashi." Pakkun said handing over the note that Kakashi had quickly wrote for him.

"Thank you pakkun, you may go now." The third said as he rose to his feet. "i want a meeting of all the jonin and chuunin currently in the village in half an hour." He said to the anbu who greeted him. "I'm heading over to the hospital." He added before leaving the room, the anbu wearing the fox mask nodded before vanishing to send out the summons.


	2. chapter one

Konoha hospital-

Kakashi dropped down outside the doors of the hospital and looked around before entering. "I have an emergency here." He said to the nurse who nodded and lead him towards one of the rooms. He looked around when he felt the hokage's presence and sighed. "So this is the young women you found in the third training ground. Have you discovered anything about her?" The Third hokage said.

Kakashi sighed and shook his head " no i haven't, i found her like this after seeing a blinding flash of white light. She woke up long enough to ask for my help before collapsing again." He said looking down at Maria again before looking at the hokage.

The medic treated her wound as quickly as possible "her injuries aren't as severe as they look although she had lost alot of blood. All of her wounds look as though they were inflicted by a short knife." He said before taking his leave of them both.

Maria shrieked as she woke up suddenly her whole body shaking. "No I don't want to, please don't." She said crying as she spoke. The objects in the room began to rise slightly as her emotions took over the powers she had since birth.

"She's doing this without even moving. We need to calm her down." The hokage said to Kakashi who nodded and ran over to Maria. He took her shoulders gently "calm down your safe now you remember me don't you." He said seeing the recognition in her eyes he sighed with relief as everything fell to the floor.

"W... where am I?" she murmured not taking her eyes of Kakashi the whole time she spoke.

" your in the Konoha hospital at the moment. I'm Hiruzen Sarutobi the third hokage." The hokage said stepping into Maria's view behind Kakashi. " this is Kakashi hatake, he's the one who found you injured and brought you here."

"Yo." Kakashi said smiling at her beneath her mask.

"I have a few questions I'd like you to answer. What's your name? How did you come to be in the training area?" asked the third looking at her intently as he waited for her answer.

"My name is Maria kolinsky. I don't know how i ended up where i did. The last thing i remember was running away from someone who had kidnapped me." She sobbed again as the memories came back to her, she sat with her head on her knees her long platinum blonde hair covering her face.

"It's ok Maria, he's not here anymore. We won't let him get anywhere near you again." Sarutobi said his hand resting on her shoulder as he spoke.

"He raped me, when I got away he followed. He stabbed me over and over again saying that he was making sure he didn't leave any evidence." She murmured, not noticing the look of anger that both Kakashi and the hokage had on their faces.

"if you feel up to it i have a meeting to attend and i want you both there, the meeting starts in 15 minutes" The hokage said before leaving the room.

Half an hour later on top of the hokage tower-

"Sorry I'm late we had a few problems." Kakashi said to the hokage before letting go of Maria's arm and standing beside her his hands behind his back.

"There is a reason I've gathered all of you at this time in the morning, as some of you know about a hour ago there was a breach of the barrier around the village." The hokage said seeing some of the jonin and chuunin look at each other he smiled slightly "As of this moment we have a new citizen within Konoha as well as possibly a new team member for you all. Mari would you step forwards?" he added without looking at the women next to him. Mari hesitated a moment before stepping forwards, she was shaking slightly as she looked at all of the people gathered.

"This young women is now under the protection of not only me but everyone else in this village, from what I've seen she is at least chuunin level in strength if not jonin." He smiled again when he saw them all murmuring to each other " for the moment Mari is to be assigned as the secondary leader of kakashi's squad seven. That will be all." He added before watching as they all began to leave, he nodded to Kakashi as he left.

Kakashi rested his hand on Mari's arm making her jump "you'll need a place to stay, come on you can stay with me. Don't worry i won't do anything. You can meet the team in the morning." He said before they both vanished.


	3. Chapter two

The next morning team 7 bridge-

"He's late again, why tell us to meet at 8'oclock if he's going to be two hours late." Sakura said as she paced across the bridge and back.

Sasuke smirked as he leaned his back against the bridge railing and watched his team mates.

Just then their instructor arrived in a puff of smoke "yo." He said smiling at them.

"You're late!" naruto and sakura shouted pointing up at their sensei.

"Sorry about that I was helping our new team member by some clothes and we lost track of time." He said as he jumped down.

"Lier!" they shouted again.

"It's my fault we're late sorry about that." Said a female voice behind them, they turned to see a young kunoichi walking towards them wearing a light blue jacket over a grey fishnet style top, she was also wearing a slightly darker blue skirt with grey shorts underneath. She wore a leaf headband around her waist and her long platinum blonde hair was plaited and hung over her left shoulder, her light blue eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked at the faces of the genin in front of her.

"So you finally arrived, well let's get down to introductions these are my genin naruto uzamaki, sakura haruno and Sasuke uchiha." Kakashi said pointing to each one in turn.

"Everyone I'd like you to meet Mari aikido. She'll be joining our team, She's jonin level but hasn't passed the test yet." He added noticing the look in Sasuke's eye he smiled slightly _so he's finally interested is he. Let's see what he does next. _Kakashi thought before turning his attention back to Mari "we'll be training in training ground three today. Meet me there in half an hour." Kakashi added before taking Mari's arm and vanishing.

"There's something strange there. I've never seen her before and suddenly she's a part of our squad." Sakura said turning to Sasuke who just shrugged before walking away.

Half an hour later training ground three-

"So this is where you found me last night." Mari said looking around her "nothing looks familiar it's as though i was just dropped here."

Kakashi sighed before nodding; he looked at his watch and sighed as his genin finally arrived. "You guys are late." He said looking at them and smiling.

"You're on time Kakashi sensei." Sakura said, she glanced at naruto and Sasuke as she spoke who both looked slightly shocked.

"Anyway today each of you will be going up against Mari one at a time." He said before moving over to one of the trees.

Mari stepped forwards "well come on then who wants to go first, I'd love to see what you can do." She said.

"Me" Sasuke drawled his eyes on the older women, naruto and sakura nodded before going to sit beside Kakashi. "You have three minutes starting now." _How did I know he'd go first?_ He thought as he watched his genin get ready to fight Mari.

"I'll not lose to you or anyone else." Sasuke said as he took a kunai from the pouch at his side and got ready to fight her.

"You think your special little boy; well let's see what you can do." Mari said laughing slightly at the look on his face. She watched as Sasuke aimed a kunai at her and laughed lifting her hand to bat the kunai away.

_How did she do that? She didn't even touch it. _Sasuke thought as Mari disappeared only to reappear above him , she held a kunai in her hand and aimed it at the boys back, making sure it missed by a few centimetres.

"Always watch your surroundings." She said as another Mari appeared beneath him. Within a minute the fight was finished and Sasuke was tied to one of the posts.

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly "how does she know how to do the hand signs for those techniques if she doesn't come from here." He murmured as he moved towards her and took her to one side.

"How do you know those techniques?" he said his hand on her arm tightly

"Where I'm from we see your world as though told in a story book, I learnt the different hand signs from what I saw. I just never thought that they'd actually work." She said looking down when she realised that she had been keeping something from him and the hokage after they helped her. "I'm so sorry I, I should have told you last night please forgive me." She looked down as she spoke, she wasn't sure why but the thought of him being angry at her really upset her.

"It's ok, just tell me next time." He said when he saw the look on her face; he could tell that she was genuinely upset about not telling him. "We'll have to tell the hokage after though."

Mari nodded before heading back over to naruto and sakura. "She's more powerful than I thought." Sakura said softly to naruto who nodded.

"Well you two why don't you try taking me on together. "She said looking at them both and smiling.

She stood with a kunai out of the holster at her side and got ready to fight them both.


	4. Chapter three

Fifteen minutes.-

Mari stood holding her side and panting slightly before looking down at the three genin who were all tied to the stumps near the memorial stone. "You're all strong in your own different ways. I can tell you're all going to be powerful ninja. Just remember to always fight to protect the people you care about, if you don't complete a mission you may be treated like scum but to leave your teammates to die makes you worse than that." She said before cutting the ropes that held them and stepping back.

Kakashi laughed slightly when he heard what she said before looking at his team " well then how about i treat you all to ramen." He said, waiting for naruto's reaction.

"Ramen!" naruto shouted "I love you Kakashi sensei." He said before trying to hug him.

Mari laughed as she watched Kakashi try to push naruto off him before heading out of the training area. She jumped slightly as Kakashi appeared beside her. "After we've eaten I want you to come with me to see the hokage. There are things you need to tell him about." He whispered in her ear.

"Hey Kakashi sensei do you like mari-chan?" naruto said in a loud voice right behind them. Mari blushed slightly before looking into the distance. "Naruto!" sakura shouted before hitting him on the head hard. "Sakura- Chan what was that for?" he whined.

"Come on guys." Kakashi said sighing slightly before taking a seat on one of the stools at ichiraku ramen stand. Mari took the seat next to him and naruto sat in the middle of the group of five.

"Well hello, what will you be having today?" teuchi said.

"Can I have a miso ramen with barbecue pork." Naruto said loudly before waiting for the rest of them to order.

"Itadakimasu_."__** Naruto said as he ate his ramen as quickly as possible. When Kakashi and Mari had finished Kakashi put his hand on Mari's arm and pulled her out, leaving the money for everyone's food on the counter. "We're going to see the hokage now." He said before vanishing with her. **_

Hokage residence- hokage's office-

The hokage looked up as Kakashi and Mari entered his office, without saying anything he gestured them to the seats in front of his desk. "You have something to tell me?" he said his eyes on Mari's face.

"Yes, I need to tell you that I know the hand signs for a number of jutsu's. In the place where I am from we see your world as though reading a story, from that I learnt how the different hand signs make up the different jutsu's." She said before looking down.

The hokage chuckled slightly at her reaction "its ok Mari, I'm glad that you've told me about this. I'm not surprised you didn't tell me you had a lot on your mind last night." He said before looking up as two people walked into the room.

"Hiruzen what is this about you allowing someone from outside of this village to become a shinobi without telling the council first." The female advisor said before finally noticing that Kakashi and Mari were in the room.

"This is the women I told could become a kunoichi of this village, I've allowed this because she has a power that will be helpful to this village as well as allowing her to protect herself." He said gesturing to Mari. "Kakashi what do you think of her abilities?"

Kakashi stood and bowed to both advisors before telling them about the training they had been through during the day. "I believe that she would be able to pass the jonin exam without problem." He said before bowing again and sitting back down.

The male advisor nodded "I can see that she would be a valuable asset to this village. Now that I have met her I agree with your decision to name her a shinobi. For the time being i would advise you to let her remain with kakashi's team seven." He said before turning and leaving the room.

After leaving the room he looked at his fellow advisor "she's a lot more capable than we thought, I believe that she will be an excellent addition to that team. Plus if she is at the level Kakashi says then she will also be able to better protect the kiyuubi host."

Inside the office the hokage looked at them both before smiling slightly "so Mari what do you think of Konoha so far?" he said watching her closely as he waited for her reaction to the question.

" i love this village, for the first time in a long time i feel as though I'm being accepted for who i am rather than being persecuted for daring to be different." She said sighing slightly at the memories of her past.

"Before you leave I'd like you to fill out this form, I know you're a leaf shinobi but this will just make it official." He said "I suggest you use the name that we have come up with to protect your true identity." He added "so your twenty four are you?" he said as he looked down at her form. She noticed Kakashi's sudden interest out of the corner of her eye and blushed slightly. "Yes I am." She said before smiling slightly " I have an unusual power, I've had it since birth, I'm able to sense the emotions of the people around me and can also read their thoughts but only if they have any harmful intentions to the people around me. I can also move things with my mind." She said lifting the paper on his desk slightly before lowering it back down again.

"Kakashi, I know she's staying with you at the moment but I can find her an apartment of her own if you would like me to." The hokage said watching them both as he spoke.

"She can stay with me as long as she likes, there's enough room in my apartment after all." Kakashi said before glancing at Mari and smiling when he saw her blushing.

Mari nodded "I'm fine with the arrangement as it is; I'm used to living with my brother." She said before suddenly stiffening and looking down as she remembered everything she'd lost when she'd been brought here.

" don't worry about the things you've lost look to the future." the hokage said as he watched kakashi put his hand on her shoulder. _it's been a long time since i saw kakashi like that with anyone. i wonder what the future holds for them both?_ he thought smiling slightly as he watched them leave the room.


	5. Chapter four

The next morning, Kakashi's apartment-

"Yo." Kakashi said as he watched Mari walk into the kitchen, he smiled slightly when he saw her yawn. _ She looks nice like that. _He thought as he looked at her unkempt appearance. "Did you have a good sleep then?" he asked her, his eyes returning to the book in his hand. _Why did I suddenly think that? I never thought I'd think of her like that when I found her almost dying._ He thought as he read the same line of his book again for the third time.

"I'm going to go out for a while; I'll meet you at the bridge in an hour." Kakashi said softly smiling at her when she nodded before vanishing.

Mari sighed slightly and shook her head before heading to his room to get dressed. At the moment she was staying in his room while he stayed on the sofa until he got the spare bedroom furnished.

After five minutes Mari was fully dressed and was plaiting her hair, tying it into an intricate knot at the back of her head. "That should allow me to fight better." She said softly as she ate the breakfast she had prepared for herself.

"Well I better get going at least I can arrive on time even if Kakashi doesn't. "She said softly before vanishing.

Team seven bridge-

"Hello you lot." She said as she appeared beside a pacing sakura. "I really don't see why you all turn up so early you must know what he's like by now." She added laughing slightly at the look on naruto's face.

"Hey Mari- Chan do you know what the mission is for today?" naruto shouted making Mari wince at the volume of his voice.

Mari shook her head "no sorry naruto I'm in the dark to. I'm not bothered what the mission is actually." She said softly before leaning against one of the pillars of the bridge.

"Mari can i ask you something?" sakura said tentatively.

"Ask whatever you want, I'm a member of your squad now." She said softly her eyes on the young girl.

"You managed to evade out attacks without using a ninjutsu. How?" sakura said still slightly scared to ask the question.

"It's an ability I've had since birth. No one knows where it came from or why I have it. I have the ability to move and object with my mind, At the same time I can sense a person's emotions and read peoples thoughts. The last one I can only do if the person is thinking hostile thoughts of me or the other people around me." Mari said, smiling again at the look of awe on sakura's face.

"So it's like a bloodline limit then?" Sasuke asked genuinely curious for once.

"Yes and no. It's something unique to me, there are however some people that can neutralise this power." Mari said she didn't want to hide anything from the people around her.

"Well Kakashi how long are you just going to stand there and stare, what it is have you seen something you like?" she added before spinning around and smiling at the older jonin.

Kakashi shook his head and smiled slightly "yo." He said slightly surprised when he didn't get the typical outburst from sakura and naruto. "Well come on then we better go and get the mission for the day." He said, jumping down he walked up to Mari," thanks for keeping them occupied it seems they didn't notice that I was nearly an hour late." He whispered in her ear making her blush slightly.

Mission room. Hokage's residence.-

"Aww come on old man, all we do is these boring d rank missions. Can't we do a real ninja mission." Naruto whined before being hit on the head by Kakashi and falling to the floor. Mari tried not to laugh as she watched from her position beside Kakashi and she could see that the hokage and iruka where doing the same thing.

"it seems I'll have to explain how the missions work to you." The hokage said before starting to talk about the different categories.

Halfway through he noticed that the only one listening was Mari and shouted.

"Sorry about that we were." Kakashi said rubbing the back of his head.

"Fine if you believe you are ready I'll allow you to have a c rank mission. It's an escort mission to the land of waves. You're to escort him and then stay an protect him until his mission is over." The hokage said chuckling slightly at the look on their faces. " if the client could come in now please." He shouted and waited for tazuna to enter the room.

"What is this; these pipsqueaks are going to be the ones escorting me." Tazuna said when he saw the three genin.

"Let me at him, I'll destroy him." Naruto said, Mari grabbed him and held him back.

"Naruto even i know that you can't kill the client." Mari said as she put her hand over his mouth.

"They may seem young but you'll have two jonin level ninja escorting you as well. So there's nothing to worry about." Kakashi said. "We'll leave in the morning everyone; make sure you bring everything you need."

Mari waited for them to leave before turning to Kakashi " do you know where I can get a katana from?" she asked him, seeing his quizzical look she sighed.

"Where I'm from I've used the katana and other swords since I was ten years old." She said "my foster father was a weapons specialist he taught both me and my brother."

Kakashi nodded before taking her arm. "I know the perfect place." He said before they both vanished.

The hokage and iruka looked at each other before smiling at kakashi's antics.

The next morning, Konoha gates.-

"You're late." Naruto and sakura shouted at Mari and Kakashi as they arrived.

"Sorry guys we had to pick up our newest team members sword." Kakashi said gesturing to the katana Mari carried on her back.

"Come on then guys let's go." Kakashi said after the introductions were made.


	6. Chapter five

Three hours later. The path to the land of the waves-

The group was walking slowly naruto, sakura and Sasuke walked ahead of tazuna. Mari walked at his side while Kakashi followed behind him.

Mari spotted the puddle as she walked past, and glanced at Kakashi before nodding slightly to show she had seen it as well.

She span around as two figures burst from the puddle, they wrapped a chain around him tearing him to shreds in front of them. She gasped before she felt his presence and smiled slightly. She grabbed the sword at her back and brought it down stopping the two attackers in their tracks as they went to attack naruto. "Your fight is with me." She growled "Sasuke, naruto sakura protect tazuna. There may be more of them." She saw them all nod out of the corner of her eye before turning to them both again. One of them swept his claw at her which she countered with her sword quickly, raising her other hand she flicked her wrist sending the other men flying into the tree behind them.

She saw him coming out of the corner of her eye and moved so fast her movements were a blur. "I told you the fight is with me." She said forcing him away from the group of genin and tazuna. Her eyes seemed to flash in the light as she fought them. _Come on Kakashi? A little help here. _ She thought as they aimed for tazuna again.

Putting her sword away she raised both her hands "I will not let you pass." She said letting out a burst of energy that sent them flying backwards, hitting a tree with a sickening crash.

"I've done too much." She murmured before her eyes closed and she collapsed forwards.

A hand wrapped around her waist catching her before she hit the floor. "I'm sorry I didn't help sooner. I needed to know who they were targeting." He said in a whisper before laying her on the floor gently and moving to tie up the demon brothers.

"Mari!" sakura and naruto shouted running over to her as soon as Kakashi had the attackers tied up.

"She'll be alright, she just used up to much energy with that last attack." Kakashi said as he looked down at the younger ninja. "We need to keep moving." He said as he gently picked Mari up.

After 15 minutes he looked down when he heard her groan, he smiled slightly as she opened her eyes and looked at him. She groaned again and quickly closed her eyes. Kakashi stopped walking and gently put Mari down "we'll rest here a while, we need to let Mari get her energy back. I have a feeling we'll need her later." He said as he leaned against the tree next to where Mari lay. He looked at her for a moment before walking towards tazuna and pulling him to one side "I think you have a little explaining to do. Those missing-nin were after you." Kakashi said his eyes narrowing slightly before listening to his explanation. "This is now a B class mission maybe even an A. These are genin they're not trained for this level of mission." He added his eyes going to his student for a moment before going back to the bridge builder.

Suddenly he heard a shriek and looked around to see Mari sat up her face covered in sweat. "He's here I can feel him." She said as she felt Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder, she leant back slightly comforted by his touch. "I don't know how but he's here, nearby. He must have arrived at the same time as me."

"Well, if it isn't my little Maria, Shall we start were we left off or redo everything." A man's voice said from the trees, Mari froze in fear as a man with long black hair and black eyes stepped out from the trees.

Tazuna moved forwards and grabbed Mari before stepping back. "If she's with me then you're not breaking your orders to protect me." He said as naruto Sasuke and sakura surrounded them their kunai drawn.

Kakashi leapt forwards stabbing the man in the chest before jumping back again. "Chidori." He said as lightening engulfed his hand, he slammed it into the man's chest and sighed slightly before watching as he fell to the floor.

"He's dead." He said checking the man's pulse properly before stepping backwards. "You'll never have to worry about him again Mari."

Mari continued to shake for a few moments before closing her eyes; she could feel that his presence was no longer there "you're right. I'm sorry." She said as she rose to her feet shakily.

" there's nothing to be sorry about, if you attack one leaf ninja then you attack them all, if it wasn't for you then one of the people here could have been dead during the attack before." He said resting a hand on her shoulder before letting go and walking forwards. "Let's move out, we need to get to the land of waves as quickly as possible." Kakashi said.


	7. Chapter six

The next morning. Land of the waves. –

The small group walked in near enough the same formation as the day before naruto walked in front with sakura and Sasuke, next came tazuna and bringing up the rear were Kakashi and Mari. Mari stopped walking suddenly her eyes widening slightly, seeing this Kakashi stopped his eyes searching the area around him. "There's someone nearby I can feel his emotions however much he tries to hide it." she whispered to Kakashi, who nodded slightly.

_It seems she's already sensed me._ Zabuza said his eyes resting on Mari for a moment before he launched his sword at them.

"Everyone get down now." Kakashi and Mari shouted at the same time, the blade narrowly missed Mari's head as she ducked.

"You three protect the target." Kakashi said to the three genin as mist surrounded them. "It looks like I'm getting serious. "He said pulling his head band up to reveal the sharingan beneath it.

Mari sensed what Zabuza was going to do and Drew her sword before disappearing and reappearing just in front of Zabuza. "Do you really think I wouldn't find you?" She said softly as she brought her sword up to deflect his strike.

_Wow she's almost as fast as Kakashi sensei, where does she get this power from. _Sakura thought as she watched the older women defend them from zabuza's attacks. "I will not let you near any of them!" Mari said as she brought up her hand and used her unusual power to push Zabuza back away from the group.

_She's powerful to think that she not only blocked my original attack but also forced me back without touching me. She's going to be just as much of a problem as the copy Nin maybe more. _He thought before attacking her, he stopped suddenly as someone put a kunai to his throat.

"So if it isn't Kakashi hatake the copy nin himself, finally sick of seeing the women fight your battles for you." Zabuza said smirking slightly when he saw the look in Mari's eye.

Mari stood in front of the genin and tazuna; she put her sword back in its sheath as she watched the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza.

"You three stay on your guard." She said to them as she looked around her for signs of an attack.

She watched as Zabuza threw Kakashi into the lake before he was placed inside zabuza's water prison technique.

"Great. There's no way we can leave Kakashi we wouldn't survive if we did." She murmured to herself as she watched a water clone appear in front of her.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu." She said as 5 copies of herself appeared beside her.

She drew her sword the five clones doing the same thing as they surrounded the clone.

"Sasuke I have an idea, lend me your ear." Naruto shouted.

Sasuke smirked before nodding; catching the shuriken naruto threw to him he smirked slightly before spinning around and pulling out one of his own.

He hurls the shuriken at the original Zabuza who catches it, before having to leap over the one in its wake. As the shuriken flies past him it turns back into naruto, who then throws a kunai at Zabuza in order to break the water prison Kakashi is in. As the prison breaks the water clone Mari was fighting vanishes. Mari's eyes widened slightly when she saw Zabuza aiming for naruto before disappearing, reappearing again behind naruto she grabs him and pulls him back in time.

"Your fight is with me, Zabuza." Kakashi snarled, before jumping backwards. He copied every technique that Zabuza did, just as he was about to strike the killer blow a hunter nin appeared striking Zabuza in the neck with a number of needles. The hunter Nin quickly disappeared taking zabuza's body with him.

Mari saw Kakashi about to collapse and vanished in a cloud of smoke; she reappeared and caught Kakashi before he hit the ground. She put one of his arms over her shoulder and looked at the others. "We need to get Kakashi somewhere he can rest." Mari said looking at the bridge builder as she spoke.

"My house isn't that far, it won't take long to get there." Tazuna said before taking the lead Sasuke at his side and Mari taking up the rear with Kakashi.

The bridge builders house, morning after the fight-

Kakashi opened his eyes slowly to see Mari asleep beside him her head resting on her arm. "Mari." He said softly groaning slightly as he reached out and touched her arm.

Mari jumped before opening her eyes and smiling at him "you're awake at last. You overdid it with the sharingan didn't you." She said, smiling slightly at the look on his face.

"You really helped there. If you hadn't have taken on Zabuza, then tazuna would have been dead now. There was no way that I'd have been able to get there on time." He said smiling at her beneath his mask his hand still on his arm. She blushed slightly when she realised that he hadn't taken his hand off yet before looking at him again. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the look on his face, "we'll talk when we get back to Konoha." Kakashi said as naruto, sakura and Sasuke come in the room.

Ten minutes later-

"What?" naruto said loudly making Mari wince slightly.

"Naruto please keep it down, my head still hasn't recovered from the amount of times I had to use my ability." She said rubbing her forehead gently as she spoke, her face slightly pale.

"Yes naruto, I've been thinking about everything and it looks as though Zabuza may still be alive. Normally hunter Nin dispose of the body as soon as they kill them, this one went to the effort of taking the body with him." He said looking around at them all.

"What are we going to do Kakashi-sensei? We're no match for him." Sakura said "you're still weak from using your sharingan too much and Mari is still recovering as well." She looked at Mari suddenly, when she realised that the older kunoichi hadn't said anything for a while.

"Don't worry about me I just need to get some fresh air." Mari said before standing up and leaving the room, she smiled at Kakashi as she walked out.

"I may not have as much strength as normal but I can still train you." He said smiling at them all as he got to his feet.

-Half an hour later- clearing close to the house-

"Well you'll all be doing chakra training." Kakashi said as he leaned on a pair of crutches.

"What do we have to do?" sakura said looking at him from where she stood beneath one of the trees.

"You'll be climbing those trees using just your feet." Kakashi said smiling again at the expression on their faces.

"That's impossible." Sakura and naruto shouted together.

"No it's not." A familiar female voice said behind them, "As you've all probably guessed by now I come from a place a long way away from here. I can tell you this, nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it."

Mari smiled at the three of them before standing beside Kakashi her long platinum blond hair was loose from the plait she normally wore and billowed out slightly in the breeze.

"First you concentrate the chakra in your feet; you then walk up the tree. As it's your first try you might want to run." Kakashi said as he nodded at Mari. They both stood in silence as they watched the three genin train. After a while Kakashi sat down and gestured for Mari to sit next to him "so how are you feeling? I know you were having a few problems earlier." He said looking at her out of the corner of his eye as he took out his book.

"It felt as though my head was splitting in half. It happens whenever I move things with my mind to much. In the worse case scenarios I could go into a coma, that's why I only use it if I know that I won't be overusing it too much." She said softly before leaning back against the tree and closed her eyes for a moment. Her head suddenly fell on kakashi's shoulder as she fell asleep, the use of her of powers had used up more energy than she originally thought. "Mari-chan?" Kakashi said making sure she was just sleeping and not hurt.

Sakura sat in a branch of a tree across from Kakashi and Mari she smiled slightly as she watched Mari fall asleep her head falling onto kakashi's shoulder. _ They'd be good together. I wonder if it will ever happen._ She thought before shouting down to draw attention to how high she was.

"Well done sakura. So it's the girl who has better chakra control." Kakashi said, he was trying not to move too much in case he disturbed Mari.

Mari moaned slightly as she began to wake up. _That's weird what am i lying on? When did I fall asleep? _She thought, she almost fell forwards when she saw how close she was to kakashi's face.


	8. Chapter seven

Three hours later the bridge builders house-

Mari saw the antics between Sasuke and naruto and sighed slightly "I know you need to eat to get stronger, but being sick afterwards isn't going to help you." She said from her seat beside Kakashi.

"If you excuse me I need some fresh air, I'll be outside if anybody wants me." Mari said softly before leaving the house.

10 minutes later Mari looked up when she felt someone come up beside her.

"Can I join you?" Kakashi said, looking down at her as he waited for her answer.

Mari nodded before looking out at the water again.

"Is something troubling you?" Kakashi said as he sat down beside her.

"It's ever since I saw him again, everything he did keeps coming into my head. I know he's dead now but it still won't stop." She said tears forming in her eyes again as she spoke "I've never been that powerless before."

Kakashi put one arm around her and pulled her closer, "it's ok, something like that will take a long time to deal with." He said softly gently stroking her hair as he let her cry onto his shoulder.

"It seems I've been doing a lot of this since I arrived here." She said softly her head still on his shoulder.

"Like I said a moment ago it's ok." He said, smiling at her when she looked up at him. He pulled his mask down slightly and kissed her forehead before pulling it back up again.

Mari's eyes widened slightly when he kissed her. _What? Why?_ She thought wondering why he was acting like this with her.

Mari smiled before moving slightly closer to him as she shivered from the drop in temperature, her eyes seemed to close again as she got comfortable. His arms tightened around her waist as he pulled her closer to him _she's the first person I've felt this way about in a long time._ He thought before noticing that she had fallen asleep against him again.

"She really has had it rough since she arrived here, it's no wonder that she's so exhausted." He said softly as he sat looking up at the sky his arm remained around her waist.

They sat like that for a while before Kakashi gently picked her up bridal style and walked inside.

"Is she alright Kakashi- sensei?" sakura said when she saw them both.

"She'll be fine; she's been through a lot over the last few days. She's just exhausted." He said as he took her to the room he had been lying in when he woke up. He put her down gently before covering her in one of the blankets and leaving the room.

"She told me it takes a lot out of her to use that mental ability she has. It is possible that she could be put in a coma if she uses it too much." Kakashi said to the three genin, seeing the look of surprise on their faces he sighed slightly. "Remember Sasuke, naruto try not to train yourselves to hard. Yes your training is important but so is your health." He added before turning and walking back towards the room he had just put Mari in. He sat down close to her with his back against the wall and smiled slightly at the peaceful look on her face.

-The next morning. –

"Kakashi-kun. I fell asleep on you again didn't I?" Mari said after she had woken up to see him watching her.

"Yeah you sure did." He said smiling at her again before moving to sit next to her. "So do you feel any better today? I didn't tell the others that you had a slight fever I assume that's one of the side effects on your power." He added putting his arm around her shoulder again. _Why does this feel so right? _He thought before putting his mind back on the mission. "We're all protecting tazuna on the bridge today." He said as he hugged her before getting to his feet.

Mari nodded before standing up quickly; she tied her hair up in a pony tail before leaving the room to get something to eat.

"Morning mari-chan." Naruto shouted making her wince slightly.

"Good morning naruto how's your training going?" she said looking at him as she began to eat the food in front of him. "We made it all the way to the top." Naruto said gesturing to Sasuke as well as he spoke.

An hour later, the great bridge-

"What on earth happened here?" tazuna said as he looked around at the workers lying on the floor with wounds covering their bodies.

"Why don't you shoe yourself Zabuza? I already know you're there." Mari said a she looked at a spot on the bridge.

"Haku deal with her, Kakashi's mine." Zabuza said to the figure next to him before attacking Kakashi.

"Sakura stay with tazuna." Mari said before taking her sword from its sheath. She used it to block haku's first attack before jumping as it was knocked from her hand.

Sasuke came up behind haku a kunai at the boy's throat. "It seems I have no choice." Haku said as he used one hand to do some hand signs "demonic ice crystal mirrors" he shouts trapping both Sasuke and Mari in a cage of ice.

Mari pushed Sasuke out of the way of the wave of needles aimed at them, she gasped as a number of the needles hit her in the back and neck making her collapse to her knees.

"Hello everyone naruto uzamaki has arrived." Naruto shouted as he appeared on the bridge making everyone sigh.

"Naruto! The whole point of a surprise attack is for it to be a surprise." Kakashi said loudly as he battled Zabuza.

_maybe we have a chance if naruto attacks from outside while i attack from inside._sasuke thought, he was just about to make his paln known when he saw naruto beside him. " you idiot." sasuke, kakashi and mari shouted at the same time.

" naruto sauke get down." Mari said loudly grabbing them both and pushing them down, She gasped again as she took the needles that haku had aimed at the two boys. Struggling to her feet she looked at the images of haku for a moment before closing her yes for a moment and breathing in.

" oh so you can sense me then. it seems you'l habe to go first." haku said as he aimed more needles at them. Mari flicked her wrist stopping the needles movement before turning them around and launching them back at the mirrors. _she did that without touching them. she must have some kind of bloodline limit as well._ haku thought before smiling slightly when he saw how weakened she was.

she looked at the two boys and smiled beneath her mask._i know her weakness as well._he thought before aiming the needles at the boys who were kneeling on the floor. Mari jumped forwards taking the needles in the neck.

" mari- san. why?" naruto said as he and sasuke caught her, she coughed slightly before saying " don't let your dreams die. never let hatred rule your life." she said before closing her eyes.

Naruto passed mari to sasuke before looking at haku his anger showing on his face. " i take it neither of you have witnessed death then." haku said laughing at the looks on both the genins faces.

he gasped as a visible aura began to surround naruto, sasuke gasps before being knocked out by a number of haku's needles that were aimed at naruto. _what is this chakra?_ haku thought as naruto changed before his eyes. naruto roars destrying the ice prison and blocking haku's attack before launching himself at haku, only to stop jsut before giving him the killer blow whe he see's that it's a boy he'd met in the woods while training.

kakashi looked over qickly as the prison was destroyed before turning back to zabuza who was being restrained by kakashi's ninja hounds. " chidori." he said creating the lightening blade in his hand " i let you injure me on purpose so that i could get your sent. now you die." he said aiming the chidori at zabuza's chest onloy to hit haku at the last moment. " i have done my job zabuza. i die protecting you." haku murmered coughing up blood as kakashi lowers him to the floor.

" naruto!" sakura shouted as the fog cleared slightly allowing her to see naruto stood over two figures lying on the floor. " where's sasuke and Mari- san?" she added seeing the look on naruto's face she stopped and turned to tazuna. " come on i'l take you." he said before taking her hand and running over.

" sasuke's just been knocked out, But mari- san." naruto said looking down at mari before looking away as he tried not to cry.

_Mari. _kakashi thought glancing over before turning his anger on zabuza. Kakashi quickly countered every move zabuza made before finally taking out both of zabuza's arms.

" sakura, naruto get off me i can't breath." Mari said weakly opening her eyes to see both of them with their heads on her chest.

" Mari- san your alive." naruto and sakura shout at the same time as they hugged the older kunoichi. " hey, will you be a little bit gentler i still have the needles in me you know." mari whispered,her voice still weak.

_well will you look at that. haku never meant to kill them after all._kakashi thought before turning to zabuza.

" so what are you going to do now? you haven't got use of your arms anymore." kakashi said, he stopped speaking when he heard clapping coming from across the bridge.

"well he really did a number on you didn't he zabuza. it saves me having to do the job later." gato said before laughing as he gestured to the men behind him.

zabuza growled before turning to naruto " hey kid pass me a kunai." he said, as he ripped the bandages off his face using his teeth, as soon as he caught the kunai in his mouth her ran towards gato taking out as many of the men as he could before finally reaching gato and slashing him across the chestr before pushing him off the bridge.

he headed back towards haku and collapsed looking at the boy he had brought up and loved more than anything in the world even if he didn't want to admit it.

"we still want to be paid. maybe we should go and see what the village has to offer." one of the samurai gato had hired said before beginning to move forwards only to be stopped by an arrow.

" get away from our village, or we'll have no choice but to kill you. we're tired of you using us." one of the villagers shouted having come out in force to stop the attack.

" i'm not letting them have all the fun." naruto said from beside kakashi " KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" he shouted 30 naruto's appearing behind him. _i should have enough to help out._ kakashi thought before saying " kage bunshin no jutsu. kakashi style."

The men looked at the kage bunshin and villagers before turning and running away.

" we did it." Mari said behind kakashi her voice weak before she collapsed forwards, Kakashi caught her quickly and lay her down on the ground gently beside him before getting to his feet.

- 1 week later-

" well i guess we'll be saying our goodbyes now. we have to get back to konoha." kakashi said glancing at Mari before waving to the villagers and turning to walk away.

" there's somewhere i want to go before he head back to the village." Mari said softly looking at kakashi who jsut nodded.

- ten minutes later-

The group stood beside the two graves on the hill close to the village. " so this is what ninja life is. i've had enough." naruto said making them all look at him in surprise. " from now on i'm going to live me life without regret. From now on i'm goign to live by my own nindo."

Kakashi and Mari chuckled before turning and heading down the path that lead home.


	9. Chapter eight

Three days later- hokage's office-

"Well I'm glad to see that the mission was a success." Hiruzen Sarutobi said as he looked at team seven all of whom stood in the office. "Team seven you're dismissed, you'll be paid the price of a b rank mission, which it has now been reclassified as. You have three days off until your next mission." He added waiting for the genin to file out of the office before calling Kakashi and Mari back,

"There's something you've missed out of your report isn't there?" he said knowing them both to well. "Take a seat."

Mari looked down before taking a seat in front of his desk Kakashi sitting in the seat beside her.

"We had a run in with the person who attacked Mira before she came here." Kakashi said, seeing Mari tense he put his hand on her shoulder. "He was killed after trying to attack her again."

The third nodded before his eyes rested on Mari "you still have no idea how you arrived here?" he asked her, when she shook her head he sighed slightly. "If one day you were allowed the chance to go back would you take it." he added still watching her intently.

"No I wouldn't, I know i wasn't born in this village but I've been accepted here more than i ever would have been where i come from. I would give my life to protect this village and the people here." She said making Kakashi jump slightly.

Sarutobi smiled slightly behind his pipe "That's good to hear, I was asking you this because i wouldn't want to make you a jonin if you were going to leave at the first opportunity you had." He said softly making both of them look at him in shock.

"In two days time i want you to take a special test, if you pass this test then you will become a jonin of this village." He said looking at Mari before smiling.

"What is this test?" she asked sounding slightly apprehensive.

"You will go up against four jonin level ninja in a match. The aim is to make three kunai slashes on their vests." He said softly "I will decide the jonin you will have to face."

Mari nodded before turning to Kakashi her eyes widening slightly "come on let's go home and get you prepared." He said taking her arm and leading her out of the room.

Half an hour later kakashi's apartment.-

Mari sat on kakashi's couch with her legs up her arms wrapped around her knees. Her long hair was loose and falling over her face as she sat and thought.

"You'll be fine." Kakashi said from behind her making her jump, he came forwards and rested a plate of food on the table in front of her before sitting beside her with a plate for himself. He turned away from her slightly as he ate his food not wanting her to see his face beneath the mask.

"Thanks." Mari said as she picked at her food. "A lot has happened hasn't it? I've only been here a short time and already I've nearly died, been on a b rank mission with you and now I'm doing a test to see if I can become a jonin level ninja. It's just a lot to take in." She added before sitting back her plate nearly untouched.

"You shouldn't dwell on it too much." Kakashi said as he put his plate down and moved closer to her putting his arm around her shoulder again. He smiled when he felt her relax,

"What will happen if I do become a jonin?" she said softly not looking at him. "You'll be sent out on A rank mission some on your own others with either chuunin or other jonin." He said "however I doubt the third will send you out on solo missions just yet. For now it's likely you'll be kept as the joint leader to team seven."

Mari nodded before finally looking at him "I'm worried about naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke is letting his anger control his actions to much; I saw it when I was in the ice prison with them both." She said softly "I could talk to him if you want, we have a lot in common. My whole family was murdered because of my powers when I was eleven years old."

"All of them were murdered because of your powers." Kakashi said looking at her closely as he spoke, "that doesn't make sense."

"People used to call me a demon because I was different from them, I knew things about people. When my family tried to protect me from them they were killed in a fire, my mother told my older brother to run with me." She said looking down again trying to stop the tears that were forming in her eyes.

Kakashi sighed slightly before pulling her closer to him, her head rested on his chest as she sobbed. He stroked her long hair gently, absentmindedly playing with it slightly as he stroked it.

They both jumped when they heard someone knocking on the door. Kakashi let go of Mari reluctantly before walking over to the door and opening it. He smiled behind his mask when he saw Asuma, kurenai and maito gai standing there.

Kakashi sighed and rolled his eyes when might guy immediately challenged him. "Not now gai. Now why are you all here?" he said looking at them suspiciously before smiling when Mari looked over at them all.

"Are you forgetting what time of month it is?" Asuma said smiling at him as he blew out another cloud of smoke from his cigarette. "Its poker night and your turn to host it as well." He added holding up the cards.

"Hello Mari isn't it?" kurenai said finally noticing the other kunoichi that was sat on the sofa.

"Yeah." She said softly before looking away still not used to being around so many people.

"Hello Mari I didn't know you were here. How are you settling in?" Asuma said as he dropped to the floor on the other side of the table. Not caring where he sat.

"Fine I love Konoha. It's the only place I've ever felt Accepted for who I am. Where I came from any sign of being different and people hunt us. "She said softly finally looking around at the jonin in the room.

"I've heard you have an unusual power, care to enlighten us?" kurenai said genuinely curious.

"Well I have the ability to feel people's emotions, i can also read minds." She said seeing the look on their faces she looked down "I only read people's minds if I feel they have harmful intentions towards me or anyone else I'm with. I can also move things with my mind." At this she concentrated on the deck of cards lying on the table. The cards rose into the air then the deck shuffled itself before the cards were dished out to each of the players, the rest falling gently in a pile in the middle of the table.

The other jonin's eyes widened as they watched it, their eyes resting on Mari. "That is an amazing power. It must be hard on you though." Kurenai said sitting back on the sofa beside Mari, Kakashi sat on the other side of Mari while guy was doing push ups on the floor with one hand.

"It's hard to use it to much. If I use it to much it weakens me a lot. Once when I was younger I was put in a coma for three weeks after using it to protect myself." She said softly smiling at kurenai when the other kunoichi rested a hand on her arm.

"So what are you doing here at this time of night anyway?" gai said from the floor having finally stopped doing push ups.

"I live here." She said softly, noticing the looks she was getting she blushed and looked down.

"Oh my eternal rival you are so lucky to be living with such a flower." Gai said loudly before clasping both Mari's hands in his. She jumped and moved slightly closer to Kakashi, the surprise showing on her face.

"Gai leave the poor girl alone, can't you tell your scaring her," Asuma said as he reached over and gently prying Mari's hands away from gai's.

Mari sank back when her hands were released and sighed "sorry I've been a bit jumpy since we got back from team sevens last mission. Then I'm told that I have a test in a few days time." She said softly before putting her head back and closing her eyes for a moment.

"Ah the test we've heard about that. It's to see if you're at jonin level isn't it?" Asuma said breathing out smoke again as he spoke.

Mari nodded sighing slightly "I didn't even know I could do half of the techniques I can do before I came here. It was a shock." She said softly, flicking her long hair over her shoulder as she sighed. She sensed Kakashi looking at her and smiled at him. "So are you starting the poker game or not?" she said watching as Asuma brought out a bottle of sake.

Half an hour later-

Mari laughed as she won her fourth game before putting her head back. The sake was getting to her head; she could feel the tiredness overcome her. Suddenly her head fell onto Kakashi's shoulder as she fell asleep.

Asuma smiled slightly when he saw the look on Kakashi's face. _It seems Kakashi's got a soft spot after all._ He thought before exhaling another cloud of smoke and looking at kurenai. "I'm, going to call it a night, I think we better get gai home." He said pointing to the drunken jonin who was lying on the floor. He grabbed gai's arm and pulled him to his feet before heading to the door kurenai behind him. "We'll see you tomorrow, remember the meeting in the morning, you and Mari have to be there."

Kakashi nodded before gently putting Mari's head on the sofa and letting them all out.

Kurenai waited until they were away from the apartment before smiling at Asuma "did you see how he was with her. It seems he has a soft spot." She said softly smiling again when he smiled.

Kakashi walked back over to Mari and lifted her head slightly before sitting down and putting it back on his lap again. "She's worn out." He said quietly before gently stroking her hair, he loved the feel of it in his hand.

The next morning-

Mari groaned before opening her eyes she almost fell off the sofa when she realised that she had fallen asleep on kakashi's lap, she smiled slightly when she felt kakashi's hand in her hair.

"Kakashi." She said softly trying to wake him up, She almost fell out of his lap when he jumped only to be caught when he wrapped her arm around his waist. "Sorry Mari." He muttered as he rubbed his visible eye.

Mari blushed slightly before closing her eyes again for a moment. "We're going to be late at this rate." She said suddenly remembering the meeting she'd been told about the night before, Kakashi just shrugged "I'm always late anyway." He said softly before helping her to sit up. "I would have put you on the bed last night but you looked comfortable." He said softly smiling when he saw her blush.

"I'm going to go and get ready." She said, he nodded and kissed her on top of the head before watching her leave the room.

15 minutes later she came out of the bathroom dressed in a short black skirt with black shorts underneath, She was wearing a dark blue jacket over a white fishnet style top, she wore blue shoes and had bandages around part of her left thigh. "Hey you ready yet. We're already late." She said smiling when she saw the way Kakashi looked at her. "Yeah let's go." He muttered before taking her arm and vanishing reappearing in the hokage's office.

"Mari, Kakashi I hope you have a good reason for being late." Hiruzen Sarutobi said from his seat behind his desk.

"Well you see a black cat crossed our path and we had to go the long way round." Kakashi said smiling when he saw the third roll his eyes. "Never mind you're here now. Today we will be choosing the four jonin that Mari will be fighting tomorrow." He said his eyes resting on Mari for a moment before he looked at the others.

"Are there any here that wish to put themselves forward?" He asked watching as might guy stepped forwards as well as Genma Shiranui, shikaku nara and kurenai yuhi.

"Does anyone have any problems with the jonin chosen for this test?"The third asked them all smiling when no one said anything. "Well you are all dismissed, remember to spread the word, the test will be in the arena tomorrow at 9' o'clock."

Mari looked at the people she was going to face tomorrow and sighed slightly before leaving the room with Kakashi. "Like I said last night you'll be fine just fight like you did when we were on the mission. Tell you what let's go and get some ramen, naruto and the others are probably there already."

When they arrived at ichiraku ramen they saw that the three genin were there and smiled slightly "yo" Kakashi said before sitting on one of the stools Mari taking the remaining stool at the bar. "Someone order for me." She said before putting her head on the bar.

Sakura ordered some ramen for Mari before looking at her "What is it Mari- san?" she said softly.

"I've just found out who I'll be facing in the test tomorrow. You better be at the arena tomorrow at nine if you want to watch." She said as she picked at her ramen. _I hope i don't make a fool of myself tomorrow._ She thought.


	10. Chapter nine

The next morning Kakashi's apartment.-

"What's wrong can't you sleep?" Kakashi said behind Mari, he sighed slightly before sitting down beside her on the roof.

"No, I'm just nervous." She said softly, she shivered slightly suddenly feeling cold she had been sat on the roof for quite a while.

Kakashi put his arm around her again and stroked her arm to try and warm her up he smiled again as he moved to sit behind her his arms wrapped around her waist to keep her warm. She rested her head on his chest and sighed. _I don't know whether I love him or not? _She thought trying to work out her emotions.

"Come on Mari- Chan you need your sleep its 4'oclock in the morning you'll need some sleep before tomorrow." He said before getting to his feet and pulling her to her feet gently. He frowned as he led her back inside and sat down on the sofa. Mari sat down next to him her legs curled up beside her as she drifted off to sleep her head resting on the cushion he had placed on his lap.

3 hours later-

"Mari- Chan you need to wake up now." Kakashi said stroking her hair gently to wake her up. Mari moaned slightly and moved her head closer to him "five minutes." She moaned her eyes still shut. Kakashi chuckled before stroking her cheek gently. "You have your match in less than an hour surely you want to get dressed for it." he said Mari shot awake and blushed when she realised she was only wearing the shirt Kakashi had given her to change into after they'd climbed off the roof.

Mari jumped to her feet before running to the bathroom to have a shower. She wrapped herself in one of the large white towels before leaving the bathroom only to find Kakashi stood outside. She shrieked before running into his bedroom her face bright red.

15 minutes later Mari came out of the bedroom wearing a light blue skirt over grey shorts, she was also wearing a light blue fishnet style top beneath a darker blue jacket. She had plaited her hair again and wore it handing over her left shoulder.

She looked at Kakashi and smiled slightly before putting her katana on her back and fixing the shuriken and kunai pouches to her legs.

"I'm ready we better go." She said heading to the door, before she was suddenly stopped by kakashi's hand on her arm. She watched as he pulled his mask down before leaning forwards and kissing her gently on the mouth. "For luck." He said when he eventually pulled away from her. "Let's go." he added.

Kakashi grabbed her arm and they both vanished appearing in the arena. Mari gasped when she looked up and saw the amount of people waiting to watch her match. "Great, now I'm even more nervous." She muttered to Kakashi, who smiled and squeezed her arm before vanishing. Genma, kurenai, shikaku, might guy

Mari turned and looked at the four jonin beside her before looking away again.

When she looked back Genma smiled and nodded to her before continuing to chew the senbon in his mouth,

Kurenai smiled and nodded to her before looking up at where the hokage was sat. _She looks so nervous._ She thought looking at the younger kunoichi out of the corner of her eye.

Shikaku Nara nodded to the younger ninja before looking away. _This is going to be interesting._ He thought remembering the stories he'd heard from his son of her unusual power.

Might guy smiled at her and gave her the nice guy pose before looking away.

"You are all here today to watch the match that will determine whether Mari aikido will become the newest jonin in our village. I ask that you show your respect to everyone fighting today. The aim is three kunai strikes across the chest; once this is achieved the shinobi must leave the arena." The third said in a loud voice.

Mari moved away from the other four as she mentally prepared herself for the match. She closed her eyes for a moment focusing on the thoughts of the four people. _So kurenai is a genjutsu specialist._ She thought aiming to focus on her first.

She opened her eyes again, noticing the look she saw on their faces she smiled before looking at the hokage.

"If you're all ready let the match begin." The third said, As soon as he finished the sentence Mari disappeared in a cloud of smoke reappearing behind kurenai. "Got you." She muttered as she slashed her across the chest with the kunai in her hand, making her groan.

_She's good. I didn't even see her use hand signs. _Shikaku said as he prepared himself for her attack.

Mari jumped backwards as kurenai aimed a kunai at her quickly reflecting it with her own before moving to the side. Narrowly avoiding an attack from Genma that was aimed at her chest.

"You'll have to do better than that." She said smiling slightly before flicking her wrist and sending him flying backwards into kurenai. Disappearing again she reappeared above kurenai and quickly slashed her twice.

Kurenai held her hand up to show that she was out of the match before heading over to Asuma who was acting as proctor.

Mari gasped slightly as her whole body suddenly froze; she looked up to see shikaku watching her "Shadow possession jutsu a success." He said as he slowly walked towards her making her do the same thing. Mari laughed slightly before her eyes rested on something behind shikaku. "First lesson I learnt when learning the way of the sword, use your surroundings." She said softly as the kunai flew towards him slashing him across the chest twice moments before he released the jutsu and moved backwards.

"Well that's the first time that's happened in a long time." He said smiling slightly at the young kunoichi in front of him.

Mari jumped into the air quickly when she felt a presence behind her taking another kunai from the pouch at her side before going through a series of hand signs " kage bunshin no jutsu." She said softly 5 more copies of her appearing in the air beside her.

_They are all going to be surprised by what I do next. Sorry I didn't tell you about it Kakashi. _She thought before landing on the ground "kuchiyose no jutsu." She shouted after quickly going through the hand signs. "Sorry to call you so soon kitia but I need your help." She said as a large white wolf appeared beside her, she could hear people gasp around her and looked to see the disbelief in kakashi's eye.

Kitia growled before launching herself forwards and tackling shikaku giving Mari enough time to slash him across the chest a third time.

"You truly have talent. Glad to have you in the village." He said before walking towards Asuma.

"Kitia you can go now I can't keep you out much longer." She said almost falling to her knees when a blinding flash of pain went through her head.

"Call me when you need me my lady." Kitia growled before vanishing leaving Mari with Genma and might guy.

"What was that summons?" Genma said watching her closely as he got ready to fight her.

"Wolf summons. They came to me when I was training in the forests a week ago." She said shrugging slightly when she saw the look on his face. She winced slightly as pain went through her head again.

Mari watched as the clones she'd made earlier appeared beneath Genma one of them kicking him into the air. He flipped expertly landing on the clone before looking startled when he saw the triple slash marks across his chest. "Sorry about that. I wanted it over quick." She said stumbling slightly, she knew she was overdoing it but she had to finish this match and there was one person left.

"Good job, you really are quick, I hope to work with you sometime." He said bowing his head to her before going to stand beside shikaku his eyebrows raised.

"Leaf whirlwind." Might guy shouted as he aimed a kick at her head which she quickly countered using the sheath of her sword before being caught in the side by the low kick. She gasped her hand on her side as she rose to her feet looking at him from where she'd landed.

"Now that hurt." She murmured cringing slightly from the pain. She saw him coming at her again his speed increased. "Kage bunshin no jutsu." She murmured a clone appearing beside her. She rose her hands as he came towards her, before using her mind to lift him into the air stopping his attack immediately and making the audience gasp loudly. Just as the clone was about to slash him across the chest she collapsed to her knees letting out a cry of pain her hands on her head. She could feel the blood trickling from her nose as she held her head in her hands, before being violently sick.

"This match is over." Asuma said to the crowd as the jonin merged on their fallen comrade. Kakashi appeared next to her and rested hand on her shoulder as he knelt down. "You're going to be ok. Relax." He said softly.

"What's wrong with her?" kurenai said softly looking at the younger kunoichi.

"It's her ability. If she uses it to much it can cause this to happen to her she admitted to me once that she's been in a coma before for three weeks." Kakashi said softly getting out of the way as the medical core appeared.

"Although the match is over. I believe Mari aikido to have the abilities necessary to becoming a jonin." Hiruzen Sarutobi said to the crowd and the jonin as he watched Mari being taken away. "From this day forth let us acknowledge a new jonin to the ranks of shinobi." He was slightly surprised when a cheer went up from the crowd.

Mari smiled "so I managed it." she said softly before closing her eyes.

Half an hour later Konoha hospital-

The doctor left the room slowly and looked at the gathered jonin and hokage. "She's fine. After a few day's rest she should be able to leave the hospital. She should be careful about how much she uses her ability in the future." He said before looking at the hokage "She's awake but please can I ask that only two or three people visit at any one time."

He smiled at them all before walking down the corridor. "Kakashi, if you would come with me. I think we have something to discuss with her." Hiruzen said before entering the room Kakashi at his side.

Mari looked at them both as they entered before looking away a troubled look on her face.

"I think you have something to tell us." The third said his eyes resting on his newest jonin.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was approached when I was training in the forests just under a week ago. I'm not sure why but they believed me worthy of being their summoner for the first time in hundreds of years." She said softly her voice weak. "Kitia, the wolf I summoned is the only one I am allowed to summon at this moment in time."

Kakashi and the third looked at each other "The wolves have agreed to be loyal to Konoha from now on. They have also agreed to stay loyal to the village for as long as their contract is around." She said softly closing her eyes for a moment.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" Kakashi said softly as he sat down in the chair beside her.

"I was waiting until after the test. I didn't expect to need to use it during It." she murmured wincing again as her hand went to her head.

"It's ok." The third said smiling at her before resting a hand on her shoulder "well then it seems I have another reliable jonin then." He added smiling when she looked at him before leaving the room.

"How are you feeling?" kurenai said softly as she entered the room with Asuma.

"I feel as though someone's stabbing me in the head from the inside." Mari murmured closing her eyes again before smiling when she heard Asuma chuckle.

"You really should be careful with that ability of yours. We'd rather not see one of our comrades in a coma." He said resting his hand on her arm shoulder gently before smiling at her.

"You have some more visitors outside. Seems you have quite a few fans." He said chuckling again at the look on his face.

"Please say it's not guy. I don't think I could do with him right now." She murmured making all of them laugh.

"Don't worry Kakashi will keep him under control. See you when you get out." Both kurenai and Asuma said before leaving the room.

She looked up as two more people entered the room, slightly surprised to see genma walk in with shikaku walking beside him.

"It seems my son was right aobut you. You really are a troublesome women." shikaku said chuckling " it's been a long time since anyone beat me that quickly. I'm glad to have you as an ally rather than an enemy."

Genma nodded " you really surprised us when you used your summons, i never even knew there was a wolf summons." he said softly still chewing his senbon at the corner of his mouth.

" They approached me while i was training in the woods. I don't know how or why but they said they'd be loyal to both me and konoha until their contract has been destroyed." she said softly her eyes began to drift closed as she felt tiredness creep over her.

Shikaku and Genma exchanged glances before smiling at Mari. " we can see your tired. we'll leave you to rest now. i can tell guy that your not up to a visit if you want." Genma said smiling at her warmly, he had respect for the newest of the jonin, even while in pain she fought as hard as she could beating three of the four people she had been put up against.

Mari sighed her eyes still closed." thank you." she murmered as she slowly drifted off the sleep.

" she's fallen asleep." Genma said to might guy as he left the room " you should visit her tomorrow if you want to visit."

" i will visit her and my eternal rival tomorrow then." might guy said loudly before looking at his watch " i have to go train lee." he added before running away from them both.


	11. Chapter ten

The morning after-

Mari groaned as she finally woke up, turning her head she smiled when she saw Kakashi asleep in the chair beside her. _He's been here with me all night?_ She thought as she slowly sat up and rested her back against the back of the bed.

Mari coughed into her hand, her cough harsh. She didn't even have to look down to see she was coughing up blood.

"Mari." Kakashi said having finally woken up; he looked at her closely as she turned her head away from him. She felt rather than heard Kakashi stand up and move beside her.

"What is it?" he asked, when she didn't reply he put his hand on her face and forced her to look at him.

"Why didn't you say that you were coughing up blood?" he said, stroking her hair gently as she continued to cough.

"It's just started." She murmured her vision blurred slightly as she felt a wave of dizziness overcome her.

"I feel light headed." She murmured before collapsing forwards onto his chest. "Mari." He said before putting a hand on her forehead. "You have a fever" he added before gently laying her on the bed and going to the door.

Seeing a doctor going passed he stopped him "we have a problem in here she's got a fever and is coughing up blood." He said, the doctor nodded before walking into the room quickly.

He spent a while going over Mari before looking at Kakashi "luckily it's not as serious as it seems. She'll have to spend a few days in hospital. It's a good thing that we caught it quickly. I've given her something for the fever she needs to rest now, I'm sorry but I cannot allow more than one visitor at a time."

Kakashi nodded smiling slightly when he realised that the doctor had seen that he had been there all night that was the only reason he was allowing him to stay now.

Three days later-

Mari looked at Kakashi as she stood up. "Finally I'm free." She said, she'd not had the fever for two days now but the doctors had insisted she stay for another two days in case.

Kakashi chuckled "it really has been driving you mad being stuck in here hasn't It." he said, he'd stayed beside Mari for most of the time he was in hospital.

"We better go; we have to meet Sasuke, naruto and sakura. I promised them." He added, Mari nodded she knew that they'd been worried about her.

Thirty minutes later-

"You're late!" sakura and naruto shouted at Kakashi, before seeing Mari and smiling.

"Mari- san you're out of hospital?" sakura and naruto said at the same time Sasuke just looked at her.

"Yep I got out this morning. That's why Kakashi was late meeting you." She said smiling at them.

She continued talking to them before noticing the hawk circling above them; she looked at Kakashi before nodding to the bird.

"Guys we'll see you later. We have to go and see the hokage." Kakashi said before taking Mari's arm and vanishing.

"Nice of you to finally arrive Mari, Kakashi." The hokage said before looking around at the other jonin.

"You've been assembled for only one reason." The hokage said looking at them all.

"So it's that time already huh." Kakashi said lazily.

"I saw some of the other village's ninja in the village so when is it?" Genma said.

"It's in a week's time." The hokage said making them all gasp. Mari looked slightly confused having only been a jonin for a short amount of time.

The third saw her confusion and smiled "In a week's time the chuunin exam will begin." He said smiling again when he saw her eyes widen slightly.

"Would the jonin in charge of the rookie squads please step forward, as you all know genin can apply to do the chuunin exam after 8 missions. Now kurenai, Asuma, Kakashi."

"Kakashi hatake squad seven Naruto uzamaki, sakura haruno, Sasuke uchiha. I hereby nominate all three for the chuunin exams." Kakashi said from where he stood in front of the other jonin.

"Kurenai yuhi squad 8. Kiba inuzuka, shino aburame, hinata hyuuga. I hereby nominate all three for the chuunin exams." Kurenai said softly.

"Asuma Sarutobi team 10. Shikamaru Nara, ino yamanka, choiji akamichi. I hereby nominate all three for the chuunin exams." Asuma said as he exhaled another cloud of smoke.

Mari looked around when she heard the others muttering. _So it's the first time rookies have been in the exam for 5 years._ She thought as she listened to them all.

"Now that we know all the teams that will be participating you are dismissed. "The hokage said he waited for people to start to leave "Mari, Kakashi will you remain a moment?"

Mari and Kakashi looked at each other before stepping forwards "Mari how are you feeling?" he asked her. "I'm fine now thank you." She said softly before frowning slightly as she wondered what his real reason for asking them to stay.

"Mari I would like you to help as one of the proctors for the first and second tests of the chuunin exams. I think your abilities will be a help, just remember not to use them to much." The hokage said before looking at Kakashi.

"I want you to go through the chuunin exam procedure with her when you have the time." He said to him, Kakashi nodded before vanishing and taking Mari with him.

"Let's go and get something to eat, we can tell them about the exam in the morning." Kakashi said softly looking at her and smiling before heading back to his apartment to change.

When they got there she looked at him before smiling slightly "I have someone I think you should meet. I would have done it sooner but I was ill." She said softly "could you call out one of your Nin dogs?" she added.

Kakashi shrugged before going through the hand signs "kuchiyose no jutsu." He said as he slammed his hand on the table.

"Hello Kakashi what's up?" Pakkun said before looking around and frowning slightly.

"Hey sorry about this there's someone you should both meet. "Kuchiyose no jutsu." She said as she slammed her hand on the floor. "Kitia this is Kakashi and pakkun." She said to the white wolf when she appeared.

"Is that the wolf summons. Where on earth did you find that it's been missing for over 50 years?" pakkun said as he looked at kitia and smiled.

"She didn't find it we found her." Kitia said as she sat down on the floor. "We found her practicing in the forest just under a week ago; she was more compatible with us than anyone else we'd ever met." She looked at her master and smiled before standing up and moving beside her, Mari sat down and kitia rested her head on Mari's knee.

Kakashi nodded as he took all of the information in before allowing pakkun to go.

Mari looked at Kakashi "so do you want one of us to make something or are we going out for food?" she said softly.

"Oh, I've already booked us a table at one of the nicer restaurants. There's a present on my bed for you. Hope you like it" he said smiling when he saw the look on her face. He laughed as she headed to the bedroom and opened the parcel on the bed.

Inside was a light blue dress that fell to just below the knee with a leaf design in gold on the front near the top of the dress. "Oh wow it's beautiful." She said, she heard him chuckle through the closed door and blushed.

"I'm just going to have a shower and get dressed I won't be long. "She said as she finally opened the door.

"Don't worry about it; we have over an hour before we have to be there." Kakashi said from the front room.

Mari headed for the bathroom staying in the shower for a while before getting out and wrapping herself in one of the large white towels that were always in there.

She left the bathroom her long hair tied up in another one of the towels, seeing Kakashi leaving his bedroom she blushed. "The bedrooms all yours I have everything I need from It." he said moving past her to go into the bathroom his hand brushing her arm as he passed making her shiver slightly.

Mari quickly got changed into the dress that Kakashi had bought her, She sat in his bedroom until 20 minutes before they had to be at the restaurant. When she came out she was wearing the light blue dress as well as a pair of darker blue flat shoes. Her long platinum blond hair was curly and hung down to the bottom of her back; she was also wearing a light blue eye shadow.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he watched her walk toward him "wow. You look beautiful." He said making her blush.

"Thanks you don't look to bed yourself." She said grinning at him her eyes seemed to sparkle slightly as she tried not to laugh.

Well come on then." He said holding out his elbow to her, she tucked her hand in his before they left the flat and walked towards the restaurant. She could feel people watching them as she walked past and moved slightly closer to Kakashi. On the way there they spotted kurenai and Asuma who smiled at them both before stopping their eyes widening slightly.

"Wow you look amazing Mari." Kurenai said smiling at the blond kunoichi.

"You really are lucky to be going on a date with her." Asuma said smiling at Kakashi as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

Kakashi smiled back at him before nodding to them both. "Well we have to go now. I have a table booked." He said before walking away.

Ten minutes later inside the restaurant-

"So have you decided what you want yet?" Kakashi said softly pulling Mari out of the day dream she was having.

"How about you choose for me I can't decide." She said smiling at him when he nodded.

Mari smiled when she saw what he had order. "I love that." She said making him smile at her beneath his mask. "I know you do, we have been living together for a while now after all." He said.

When the food arrived Mari started eating the yakisoba without looking up. When she'd finished eating she finally looked up.

"Let's get the bill and head somewhere else shall we." Kakashi said making her jump.

Mari nodded and headed outside as he paid the bill; he put his hand on her arm before walking to a nearby bar and going inside. "Come on let's relax a bit over some sake." He said as he sat down at the bar Mari taking the seat next to him.

Two hours later-

"I love you Kakashi." Mari said loudly a little the worse for wear from the sake they'd drank.

"Come on let's get you home." Kakashi said sighing slightly as he helped her rise to her feet; his arm went around her waist as she stumbled.

"Is she alright Kakashi?" Genma said having walked into them when they left the bar. "She's just had to much to drink," Kakashi said.

10 minutes later Kakashi's apartment-

W you really can be a bother sometimes." Kakashi said as he sat her down on the sofa. "Here drink this, if you don't you'll have quite a headache in the morning" he said handing her a glass of water. Kakashi sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around her waist again.

He sighed as her head fell on his chest, falling asleep quickly.

Mari groaned when she woke up a few hours later to find herself on the sofa.

"So your awake again, you sure had a lot to drink." Kakashi said when he heard her groan.

"Hey are you alright?" he asked as she snuggled up to him. "Your comfy." She said her voice muffled by his clothing.

Kakashi chuckled "Am I now." He said putting both his arms around her he hugged her "I was worried about you after your jonin test, you have to stop using your ability to much." He said softly, when she shuddered her gently put his fingers under her chin and pushed her chin up so that he could see her face.

One of his hands wrapped around her hair gently as he used his other hand to pull down the mask on his face leaning forwards he kissed her gently trying not to laugh when he saw the look of surprise on her face. She closed her eyes as he deepened the kiss, when she finally pulled away she was slightly breathless.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that." Kakashi said, before frowning slightly. "Mari are you alright, you look a little pale."

"I think it's the after effects of the alcohol and everything. I need some sleep." She murmured, Kakashi picked her up gently before taking her to the bedroom. He turned around as she changed into the shirt she used as pyjamas before turning back around again.

"I'm going to get some sleep now as well." Kakashi said smiling at her.

"You don't have to leave you know. I won't do anything." She murmured as she climbed into bed. She sighed as she felt him get in beside her and wrap his arm around her waist pulling her to him; she smiled before drifting off to sleep in his arms.

The next day-

Mari woke up to find kakashi's hands around her waist and smiled before snuggling closer to him her head on his chest. "Comfy." She murmured making Kakashi chuckle again.

"So are you going to let me get up to meet the genin or not?" he said stroking her hair as he spoke.


	12. Chapter eleven

-Half an hour later-

"You're late!" sakura and naruto screamed at Kakashi as they arrived at the bridge.

"Sorry guys that's my fault." Mari said sighing slightly as she perched on the rail of the bridge above them.

"Forget that, I have something to tell you all." Kakashi said looking around at all of his students " I've put you all forwards for the chuunin exams, here are the forms you need to fill them in and take them to room 302 of the academy by 3'oclock tomorrow afternoon."

"You're all dismissed." He said smiling at the looks on their faces.

"Hey why don't we all go get something to eat? It's my treat." Mari said to them all before glancing at Kakashi who nodded slightly from behind his book and smiling.

"Can we get ramen?" naruto said loudly making Mari wince. "Sure we can." She replied ruffling his hair slightly and chuckling when he scowled at her.

"Sasuke-kun did you miss me." Someone shouted from behind them making Mari spin around, she moved out of the way to stop herself from being hit by a yellow and purple blur which launched itself at Sasuke.

"Oh, hello Asuma." She said waving to him as she watched Sasuke try to pry ino off him; she winced slightly at the noise.

Kakashi stopped and moved back standing beside Mari.

"I forgot you haven't met my team yet, his is ino yamanka, choiji akamichi and Shikamaru Nara." Asuma said pointing to each one of them in turn.

"Oh so you're shikaku's son. I've heard all about you." She said smiling at Shikamaru before looking around at the others again.

"We're just going to get something to eat your team are welcome to join us." Asuma said smiling when Kakashi and Mari nodded.

"Naruto, we've got a change of plans, we're going to go have barbecue with team 10." Kakashi said smiling at naruto.

"Aww." Naruto said looking down, only to scowl at Mari again when she ruffled his hair. "Come on naruto, we're paying."

Asuma shook his head slightly as they all headed to the restaurant, ino, Shikamaru, naruto and the rest all sat at a table together leaving the jonin's to sit together at another.

"So Mari how are things with you?" Asuma said exhaling a cloud of smoke as they cooked the meat.

"I'm fine. Although I have been having trouble with one of my abilities." She said not looking at Kakashi as she spoke, she could feel his gaze on the back of her head.

"It seems that my mind is more open to people's thoughts than normal. I'm a bit worried about it because it normally means that something is going to happen." She said, before jumping slightly when Kakashi put his hand on hers beneath the table.

" it'll be alright, we'll all help you work out what ever has caused your ability to play up." He said looking over at Asuma who nodded.

Meanwhile over on the other table.-

"So that's the new jonin." Shikamaru said remembering what his father had said about her. "I still can't believe the speed she beat my father in, while injured as well."

" yeah Mari- san's good. She had Sasuke beat and tied to a post within a minute the first time they sparred together." Naruto said trying not to laugh when Sasuke glared at him.

"You've got to admit though, she's pretty isn't she." Ino said looking over at the older kunoichi.

"Yeah she is. I think she likes Kakashi-sensei as well." Sakura said smiling slightly at the thought.

Shikamaru remained silent as he looked over at the three jonin "I wonder where she comes from originally. We all know she didn't grow up here." He said thoughtfully.

"No one really knows about her past. I think that the only people that know about it are the hokage and Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said softly "She always looks upset when anyone mentions the past, so no one really asks her about it."

Shikamaru nodded before eating some of the meat choiji had cooked he remained quiet as he watched them All talk his mind going over the possibilities.

He looked over when he saw a chuunin walking over to talk to Asuma, Mari and Kakashi and nudged naruto who was sat next to him. They all went silent as they listened to see what was going on.

The jonin table.-

"What is it kotetsu-san?" Kakashi said looking at the chuunin in front of him.

"Mari aikido san is required at the meeting for the chuunin exams." He said smiling over at Mari as he spoke.

Mari nodded before turning to Kakashi "I'll see you later. Bye Asuma i hope both teams do well in the chuunin exams." She said before looking at kotetsu.

"I'm coming." She said before walking over and putting her sandals on.

"Well let's go then." kotetsu said before they both vanished.

Chuunin exam meeting-

"Nice to see you here, Mari aikido san." Ibiki said as she sat down next to kotetsu and izumo.

Both kotetsu and izumo smiled before looking over at Ibiki again. "All of you will be acting as proctors during the first exam with me as well as the second with Anko." Ibiki said loudly "Mari- san I know that you are a jonin and most of the time the proctoring is left to the chuunin, however the hokage has said that you unique abilities might come in handy if there is any trouble."

15 minutes later-

"You all have your roles for the first test of the chuunin exams, you are dismissed." Ibiki said "Wait kotetsu, izumo and Mari please stay behind."

Mari looked as surprised as kotetsu and izumo as she was asked to stay behind. "Tomorrow I'd like you to disguise yourselves as a group of genin and remain like that until shortly before the first exam. " I want the three of you to set up a genjutsu over the second floor, then stand outside room 203 and see the reactions of the candidates." He said before dismissing them.

"Kotetsu, Izumo. It's nice to be working with you both." Mari said smiling at them both,

"The pleasures all ours. We saw your test for jonin; it was amazing I've never seen Genma and shikaku beaten so fast." Kotetsu said grinning before looking at izumo.

"What's this you're saying about me?" A voice said from behind Mari making her jump slightly.

"Hello Genma, we were talking about the jonin test." Mari said smiling at him when she saw the smile on his face.

"Oh yeah I promised I'd show you kitia someday." She said before summoning the white wolf.

"Guys meet kitia, Kitia this is izumo, kotetsu and Genma." Mari said.

Kitia walked towards each of the men in turn and sniffed them before moving back to stand beside Mari. "It's always nice to meet friends of my lady's" kitia said her voice low as she licked one of her white paws.

Genma blinked before chewing his senbon again as kitia walked forwards and put her paw on his leg gently. "The king of the wolves was right to come to this village. You are all worthy of the loyalty of the wolf contract." She said before turning to Mari "I am your familiar now; if you need me just call my name." The wolf disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Mari blinked before looking at the others and smiling, she rubbed her forehead gently almost absentmindedly making Genma look at her curiously. "Mari- san you haven't been having any problems with your abilities lately have you?" he asked her. Mari looked at him for a moment before looking away giving Genma his answer.

"Anyway I'll see you two in the morning." She said to kotetsu and izumo smiling slightly before turning to leave, she waved at them both as she got to the end of the corridor.


	13. Chapter twelve

10'oclock morning , academy building.-

Mari walked towards the staff room slowly, her long blond hair was plaited like normal and she was wearing her pale blue fishnet style top over a dark blue jacket, she was also wearing a dark blue skirt over a pair of black shorts a bandage was wrapped around her left thigh just above her knee and she was wearing her shuriken pouch on her leg.

When she reached the office she knocked before entering.

"Mari-san what are you doing here?" iruka said as he saw her enter the room.

"I'm supposed to be meeting kotetsu- san and izumo-san here." She said smiling at him when he nodded.

"Neither of them is here yet. You can stay here until they arrive if you want. I'm sorry but I have a class to teach now." Iruka said as he smiled at her again before leaving the room.

-Half an hour later-

"Hey Mari-san." Kotetsu said as he entered the room dressed in the uniform the proctors wore for the exam.

Izumo smiled at her warmly before glancing at kotetsu. "Sorry we're late we had to see the hokage." He said.

Mari smiled and shook her head slightly "well we better start setting up the little preliminary test for the exams." She said softly.

"I'll do the genjutsu on the door." Kotetsu said smiling slightly as they all got ready.

"Henge" Mari murmured as she changed her appearance she was now shorter with short brown hair and green eyes. She was now wearing a purple dress with shorts underneath and had her kunai pouch on her waist.

She turned to see that both kotetsu and izumo had changed their appearances already before leaving the room quietly.

Half two outside room 201-

"Do you really think you're ready for it if you can't get past us?" Mari said as she punched the boy in green in the face making him fall backwards.

Kotetsu laughed "It's true maybe you should give up now. This test isn't for weak little girls." He said as he pushed the girl with two buns in her hair over.

"That's enough. Let me past." Sasuke said as cool as ever, "Release the genjutsu on the floor while you're at it."

"Yes this is the second floor not the third." Sakura said, before smiling when naruto nodded.

"So you saw through my genjutsu, but did you see this." Kotetsu said before aiming a kick at Sasuke's head which was quickly stopped by rock lee the boy in green.

Kotetsu, izumo and Mari disappeared into the room behind them as the genin began to head upstairs. "This is going to be fun." Izumo said as he changed back into his original appearance.

"Definitely." Mari said as she smiled at them both before changing back "I'm glad kakashi's team are on the ball though, they did learn something from us both after all." She added making them both smile as she watched the teams walk away.

3 o'clock, outside room 301.

Kakashi stood outside the room his back against the door as he looked at his genin. "Nice to see you all here." He said as he glanced at Mari who was stood next to him.

"I'm proud of you all for coming, you are now officially registered for the exams." He said as he moved out of the way for them to enter.

"They'll be fine. " Mari said when she saw the look on kakashi's face.

They both chuckled when they heard naruto shout out to the rest of the genin before starting to walk away. "I better go. I'm helping with this exam." Mari said before vanishing.

15 minutes later-

Mari looked at the genin in front of her as she appeared in the room behind Ibiki. She saw the startled looks on the faces of the people who knew her and smiled slightly.

She listened to Ibiki give his instructions before sitting down in between kotetsu and izumo her clipboard in her hand.

"Number 35 fails." Mari said as she caught him cheating for the 5th time in a row.

"How can you watch us all at the same time!" he shouted "who says I cheated 5 times." Mari appeared next to him suddenly a kunai near his throat.

"We are all here because we are the best, now leave and take your teammates with you." She said before picking her clipboard up again and glancing at kotetsu.

She smiled slightly when she saw his grin behind the clipboard before going back to watching the genin.

_I hope he's going to be alright._ She thought as she watched naruto begin to panic before looking around at the other candidates. She frowned when she saw the guy with the gourd on his back cheat without taking any notice of anything around him.

_How can anyone be so calm in this situation?_ She thought "numbers 8 and 43 fail." She said seeing the looks they gave her she sighed slightly.

She looked at Ibiki as he got ready to announce the tenth question; she tried to hide her smile as she watched people leaving the room before her eyes widened when naruto lifted him hand.

She jumped slightly as he slammed his hand down on the table "screw you! I'm not going to run away! Even if I stay a genin for the rest of my life I'll still be hokage someday." He shouted before sitting back down in his chair his arms crossed defiantly.

Ibiki glanced over at Mari a few minutes later; Mari looked around at the 78 remaining genin before nodding.

"Well I have one thing to say to all of you. You pass." Ibiki said before beginning to answer to questions that were thrown at him.

Mari glanced at kotetsu before rubbing her forehead gently, She wasn't sure why but she suddenly felt weary about the genin. "Mari-san what is it?" kotetsu whispered leaning towards her to hide it from the genin; she tried not to glance sideways when she felt izumo look at her.

"You know about my abilities don't you." She said softly smiling when they both nodded. "Someone here isn't what they seem; I just can't determine who it is."

She stopped talking as someone burst through the window.

"Anko you're early again." Ibiki said to the shouting women, rolling his eyes when she looked at him sheepishly.

"I'm Anko miterashi your next proctor, by the time I'm finished with you over half of you won't remain." She said "Be at the 44th training ground tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock."

She left the room all of the genin following behind her, Mari watched as the chuunin around her began to disappear leaving her with Ibiki, kotetsu and izumo.

"What is it?" Ibiki said he had noticed kotetsu and izumo's concern for the jonin near the end of the test.

"One of the genin are not what they seem, I could sense his emotions during the exam. I could feel he has harmful intentions for someone. I couldn't determine who it was though." She said softly rubbing her forehead again.

Ibiki nodded "I'll pass the information on to Anko it seems we'll have to keep a close eye on the genin taking the exam."

1 hour later kakashi's apartment-

Mari sat curled up on the sofa her head resting on the arm as her eyes began to drift closed.

"You shouldn't sleep like that you know you're neck will start hurting you." Kakashi said as he sat down beside her.

"My head's killing me." She murmured as she lifted her head up, it seemed to be a lot of effort just to lift her head off the arm of the sofa and Kakashi noticed it.

He put his hand on her head gently "you have a fever again, were you using your abilities."

Mari looked at him "yeah I didn't intend to though. I think there's someone in the exams that shouldn't be there. I could sense a change in the emotions in the room one of them has more harmful intentions towards someone else thank I've ever seen. It made me feel sick when I felt it.

"It's ok we'll work it out." Kakashi said pulling her towards him gently he smiled as she slowly fell asleep in his arms. Picking her up gently he took her to he took her to his bedroom and gently lay her down on the bed before putting a cold cloth on her head.

He frowned when he heard a knock on his front door, heading over he opened it to see Asuma and kurenai standing there.

"Where's mari-chan?" kurenai said when she saw that her fellow kunoichi wasn't in the living room.

"She's asleep, I came back to find her curled up on the sofa with a fever." He said glancing at the bedroom door before sitting down.

"Can I ask you what this visit is about?" he said looking at them both.

"We came to see how she was holding up, we heard about what she felt during the first exam." Asuma said as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"She's fine, she did feel something but she couldn't determine who it was coming from." Kakashi said before standing up. "I better go and check on her."

Asuma and kurenai glanced at each other before taking their leave of the other two jonin.


	14. Chapter thirteen

The next morning-

Mari woke up slowly to find kakashi sitting in a chair beside her bed. Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder as she tried to sit up and gently pushed her back down again.

"You have to take it easy today, hokages orders." Kakashi said before rising to his feet. "Do you think you feel like having anything to eat or drink?"

Mari winced slightly as she shook her head "I don't think I can stomach anything." She murmured before closing her eyes, she sighed when she felt Kakashi leave the room.

10 minutes later she opened her eyes and sat up slowly as Kakashi re-entered the room. "Here drink some of this, it should help." He said, seeing that her hands were shaking he held the cup to her lips, she smiled slightly when she tasted the slightly sweet tea he had made for her.

"If you feel up to it we can go and meet asuma and kurenai in the jonin lounge later, they said to meet them there if you felt better." Kakashi said looking at her and smiling when he noticed that her hand had stopped shaking as much, he gently rested his hand on her forehead. "You don't have a fever anymore thanks goodness, you scared me last night." He added the last bit as a whisper before gently kissing her on the lips, she sighed slightly as he kissed her before kissing him back. She chuckled softly when she saw his eye widen, before kissing him more passionately than before her eyes closing as she kissed him.

After a while she pulled back panting slightly as she tried to get her breath back. Kakashi smiled at her his mask still down like it always was when they were in the flat on their own together.

He hugged here briefly before kissing her on the cheek and standing up. "Would you like to come to the jonin lounge with me then?" He said softly, knowing that she was feeling as confused as him about what they were both feeling for each other.

"Yeah I'd like that, just let me get dressed." She said softly before slowly getting up from the bed, she was surprised when she didn't stumble.

10 minutes later she came out of the bathroom dressed in a knee length white dress with a blue leaf design at the top, she was wearing a pair of knee length white boots with flat soles and her hair was loose falling to the bottom of her back. "Wow you look amazing." Kakashi said when he saw her before gently taking her arm and they reappeared in the entrance to the jonin lounge to see that kurenai and Asuma were already there. Mari smiled slightly when she saw that they were talking to guy and Genma.

Kurenai's eyes widened slightly when she saw Mari before moving up on her seat and gesturing for her to sit next to her.

"How are you feeling, i heard you had a fever last night?" Genma said smiling at her behind the senbon he had in his mouth.

"I'm feeling better now. Something was affecting my abilities during the first chuunin exam. I could feel a massive amount of hatred and anger coming from one of the genin, I'm not sure who it was but they definitely weren't a normal genin. I have a feeling that something's going to go wrong during this next test." She said softly, she looked away when she saw all of the other jonin looking at her. She smiled slightly when Kakashi took her hand and squeezed it gently helping her to relax.

Genma saw this and looked at Kakashi his eye brows rising slightly; he'd known Kakashi for a long time and had never seen him like that with anyone, he normally kept his emotions to himself.

"I really don't know why I'm getting this feeling. Ibiki already warned Anko that something might happen. I told him about what I had sensed right after the first exams." Mari said before leaning back and closing her eyes for a moment.

Asuma sighed "If only we knew who it was aimed at, at least we'd have a way of trying to stop It." he said exhaling a cloud of smoke.

"If I was close to the forest then I may be able to determine who it is." Mari said softly, she knew that if she focused on the person's thoughts and emotions she would be able to temporarily be in the persons mind. There was however a lot of risk to this.

"How?" Kakashi said his eyes narrowing slightly.

"If I focus enough on the thoughts and emotions of the person I can temporarily place myself in a person's mind, normally without the other person realising I'm there." She said softly. Kakashi and Asuma looked at her as though she was insane "What happens if something goes wrong while you're in the persons mind." Kurenai said softly. Mari nodded "don't worry I wasn't thinking of doing that, it is too dangerous."

She jumped slightly as kitia appeared beside her, "kitia what is it?" she said looking down at her wolf familiar.

"I was in the forest for the second test. It seems that orochimaru as returned to the village my lady, he has put a cursed seal on one of your genin." She said softly before sitting next to Mari. Mari frowned slightly at the look on the other jonin's faces.

"Who is this orochimaru?" she said softly.

"He is one of the legendary sannin and a missing Nin from this village. He became obsessed with the forbidden techniques, even going as far as to experiment on children and adults." Asuma said, they all always forgot that Mari wasn't born in Konoha and didn't know as much about the history as they did. She had been informed of naruto being the kiyuubi host as soon as she had turned jonin by the hokage.

"I knew something was going to happen." Mari murmured as she slumped backwards beside Kakashi and closed her eyes for a moment. "Kitia who? Who did he put the seal on?" she said softly her eyes still closed.

"The dark haired uchiha boy." Kitia said before growling, her hackles rose "If I could I'd rip him apart. Both naruto and Sasuke are unconscious."

Mari sighed slightly before opening her eyes and looking at Kakashi "We can't pull them out of the exams." She murmured softly before getting to her feet. The other jonin looked at her in surprise as she headed towards the door.

"Kitia you know what I'm going to ask you." She said softly looking down at the wolf who nodded before taking off.

Kakashi looked at the other jonin before getting up and following Mari.

"Mari you better not even think about using your abilities with him." He said as he finally caught up with her and put a hand on her arm.

"I'm just worried." She said softly not looking at him as she stopped walking, Kakashi sighed before pulling her into a hug.

"Nothing is going to happen to them. I know they're like family to you, I feel the same way about them." He said softly as he gently stroked her hair.

"Come with me?" she said softly "I want to speak to the hokage."

Kakashi nodded before they both vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Office inside tower-

Mari looked around her wearily as they both appeared inside the office to see Anko and some of the chuunin already there looking at a tape on the TV.

Anko looked around and frowned slightly "hey, what're you two are doing here?" she said.

"It's my fault Anko-san. I heard about orochimaru being here, i wanted to see if i could help." She said softly tensing slightly when she felt another presence come into the room.

"How did you hear about this? What do you think you can do to help?" The hokage said, for the first time since she had arrived he looked suspicious of her.

"I was in the jonin lounge with Kakashi, Asuma, kurenai and Genma when my summons kitia came to us. She told us everything that happened, not only did he put the cursed seal on Sasuke he did something to naruto as well. kitia told us that before she came to me both Sasuke and naruto were unconscious." She said softly looking the hokage in the eye as she spoke. She could feel Anko watching her and knew that the kunoichi didn't trust her.

"I can summon kitia; she's obliged to tell you the truth, that's the way of the wolves." Mari said, before she could say anything else kitia appeared in a cloud of smoke making everyone jump.

"My lady is telling the truth, I was watching over the three genin until a few moments ago. They've just had help defending themselves from an attack by the sound Nin. It seems that the only reason the sound Nin were here was to test the uchiha boy. My brethren and i have been keeping an eye on the genin taking the test. We could feel my lady's worry when she fell ill." Kitia said moving around the room as she spoke obviously restless.

The hokage nodded as he let out another puff of smoke from his pipe. "Thank you kitia, Mari. I'm sorry to doubt you but you left little option when you told us you knew about orochimaru before I'd even talked to Anko about it." he said looking at her closely before turning to Kakashi.

"There's something else. If I focus hard enough i might be able to find out what he plans for Sasuke. Even here i can feel him; He's in this tower somewhere."Mari said closing her eyes for a moment as she reached her mind out, touching on the people in the tower before focusing on the one she sought.

She entered his mind slowly, hoping that he wouldn't notice the intrusion. Seeing some of his plans she gasped slightly before suddenly screaming her eyes opening quickly.

Kakashi took a step forwards and grabbed her arm as she swayed.

"He knows, He has a spy. Someone's told him about my unusual powers. He had a barrier set up against me. He's planning on using Sasuke as his next vessel." She said her words coming out in a rush as she tried to regain control over her emotions.

The hokage looked at her before exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Did you find out anything else?" He said seeing how pale she was he sighed slightly.

"Just a name, Kabuto." She said softly closing her eyes to try and remember everything she had seen. "He was trying to trap my mind in his, hoping to gain information from me."

The hokage's eyes widened at her words.

"I managed to pull back in time. I've put up a strong mental barrier against him, one that he will never break." She said, suddenly releasing that the only reason she was still on her feet was that Kakashi was taking most of her weight.

"It looks like you won't be fit to help out for the rest of the second exam."The hokage said looking at the exhausted jonin in front of him. " I order you to rest for the next few days you can come with Kakashi when the second round is over."

Mari nodded, too exhausted to say anything to him before looking up at Kakashi.

"Come on let's get you home before you collapse." He said softly before bowing his head to the hokage and vanishing.

"Do you really trust her?" Anko said looking at the spot her fellow kunoichi had been standing in.

"Yes. She has already put her life on the line for this village. Now that orochimaru knows about her power she could be a target as well." The hokage said thinking about his former pupil as he looked at Anko.

-Kakashi's apartment-

"I'm sorry." Mari murmured as she sat down on the sofa. "I didn't want to read his mind, it happened when i was looking for the presence i felt during the first exams." She closed her eyes as she rested her head on the back of the sofa to scared to look at Kakashi.

Kakashi perched himself on the arm of the settee next to her and put his hand on her head. "Don't worry about it. We have a few days before the second test is over, until then both of us have the time off." He said smiling slightly when he saw her open her eyes. "We're having another poker night, this time at Asuma's you're more than welcome to come with me." He added.

Mari nodded before wincing slightly "Remind me not to do that." she said smiling at him as she got to her feet."I feel better now, thanks for getting me back here."

"So you feel up to coming with me then?" he said trying to hide the fact that he'd be overjoyed if she did come.

"Yeah, why not I need to take my mind off what I saw." She said softly before heading towards the bathroom "Do you mind if I have a shower first?" she asked him smiling again when he waved for her to go on.

- Half an hour later-

Mari walked out of kakashi's bedroom dressed in a light pink knee length dress with long black boots. Her hair was curly and hung down her back and she was wearing a pale pink eye shadow and lipstick.

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly when he realised that this was the first time he's seen her wearing a colour that wasn't purple or blue. "Wow." He said softly to himself not sure if she heard it or not. "Well let's go then." He added as he led the way out of the door.


	15. Chapter fourteen

-Half an hour later Asuma's apartment-

"Hey Mari, Kakashi come in."Asuma said when he answered the door to them both.

Mari smiled as she walked into Asuma's apartment in front of Kakashi. She gasped slightly when she saw that not only were guy, Asuma and kurenai there but also Genma and raido.

"Oh yeah I don't think you've been introduced yet, Mari this is raido Namiashi." Kakashi said gesturing towards the man she didn't know.

"Nice to meet you Mari-san." He said smiling at her before looking around at the others.

"Nice to meet you too." Mari said softly as she sat down next to Kakashi.

"Haven't you got to help proctor the second exam?" Genma said looking at her as he chewed the senbon in his mouth.

"My abilities, when I was in the tower earlier they went out of control again. I sensed someone's mind in the tower who shouldn't be there and almost got stuck in his mind." She said softly "It seems that someone's been passing information to orochimaru, he knew about my powers. All i can really remember is one name. Kabuto."

They all looked at her before glancing at each other. "That's all you can remember?" kurenai said softly.

"That and the horrible images he put into my mind. Luckily I'm able to put up a permanent barrier between my mind and another; it'll stop him from using it against me, although I won't be able to enter his mind again. Thank god." She added the last bit in a whisper just loud enough for Kakashi to hear.

"Well we should get to the poker match seen as though we're all here." Asuma said holding the pack of cards up. Mari moaned slightly when she saw the bottles of sake making Kakashi and Genma laugh.

"What's wrong are you remembering when you declared your love for Kakashi last time you got drunk?" Genma said, he watched her blush before looking around at the others. After a moment Mari started laughing "yeah I remember it. Kind of. I think i drank just a little bit too much that night." They all laughed as Asuma got some sakazuki out handing one to each of them before pouring some sake into them.

Three hours later-

Mari giggled slightly as she won another round of poker, this had been her 5th time in a row and she saw that the others where all slightly speechless. "You are one lucky person sometimes." Genma said, she smiled slightly before looking around at them all her eyes sight slightly blurry from the sake. Kurenai had fallen asleep on the sofa next to Asuma, guy was passed out on the floor and raido was dying not to laugh at them all having not drunk as much as the rest of them.

Mari looked at Kakashi and giggled making him frown slightly. "Do you know what?" she said still looking at him. Kakashi looked at her "what?" _do I even want to know?_ He thought.

"I love you Kakashi." She said before giggling.

Genma and raido looked at each other before laughing, "She's brilliant when she's drunk." Genma said softly, he watched her get to her feet before falling on Kakashi.

"I don't think her and sake are a good combination."Kakashi said as he got to his feet, he took her hand and helped her up.

"Goodbye everyone." Mari said waving her arm at them all before looking at Kakashi.

She stumbled slightly as they reached the door and fell on him almost knocking him over.

Kakashi managed to grab her arm before she fell on the floor only to fall over himself. Mari giggled slightly as she fell on top of him; she looked him in the eyes for a while before being helped up by raido.

"I think it's time you went home Mari-san." He said trying not to laugh.

"Come on Mari-san." Kakashi said softly taking her arm gently as he led her to the door and left the apartment.

"You know I reckon those two will eventually end up together don't you? I've not seen Kakashi like that with anyone." Raido said looking around at the others. "I think I'm going to head home as well, we better get guy home."

Raido and Genma stepped forwards and took one of guys arms each before pulling him to his feet and heading to the door.]

-15 minutes later-

Mari looked over at Kakashi as they entered the apartment, she saw that he had already taken his mask off and smiled slightly before walking over and hugging him. Seeing the surprised look on his face she leaned forwards and kissed him on the mouth gently, Kakashi's eyes widened even more before he kissed her back his hand going to her hair.

He ran her hair through his fingers as he kissed her loving the feel of it in his hand, his other hand went to her shoulder and rubbed it slightly when he saw her close her eyes and deepen the kiss. _I never knew she felt the same way._ He thought. He sighed slightly as he was gently pushed backwards enough to fall on the sofa.

Kakashi pulled away from her as the kiss deepened, he looked at her closely before putting his hand on her cheek.

"Are you sure about this mari-chan?" he asked her looking her in the eye as he spoke.

"Yes." She said slightly breathlessly making him smile at her.

"Come on." He said softly before getting to his feet and bringing her up with him, he looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he walked towards the bedroom leading her behind him. She giggled slightly as they finally entered the room, their clothes were taken off quickly and both of them got what they had wanted for a while as they kissed falling down onto the bed Kakashi over mari.

_**a/n: i'l leave this bit to your imagination, don't really like writing those sorts of scenes.**_


	16. Chapter 15

-Half an hour later Asuma's apartment-

"Hey Mari, Kakashi come in."Asuma said when he answered the door to them both.

Mari smiled as she walked into Asuma's apartment in front of Kakashi. She gasped slightly when she saw that not only were guy, Asuma and kurenai there but also Genma and raido.

"Oh yeah I don't think you've been introduced yet, Mari this is raido Namiashi." Kakashi said gesturing towards the man she didn't know.

"Nice to meet you Mari-san." He said smiling at her before looking around at the others.

"Nice to meet you too." Mari said softly as she sat down next to Kakashi.

"Haven't you got to help proctor the second exam?" Genma said looking at her as he chewed the senbon in his mouth.

"My abilities, when I was in the tower earlier they went out of control again. I sensed someone's mind in the tower who shouldn't be there and almost got stuck in his mind." She said softly "It seems that someone's been passing information to orochimaru, he knew about my powers. All i can really remember is one name. Kabuto."

They all looked at her before glancing at each other. "That's all you can remember?" kurenai said softly.

"That and the horrible images he put into my mind. Luckily I'm able to put up a permanent barrier between my mind and another; it'll stop him from using it against me, although I won't be able to enter his mind again. Thank god." She added the last bit in a whisper just loud enough for Kakashi to hear.

"Well we should get to the poker match seen as though we're all here." Asuma said holding the pack of cards up. Mari moaned slightly when she saw the bottles of sake making Kakashi and Genma laugh.

"What's wrong are you remembering when you declared your love for Kakashi last time you got drunk?" Genma said, he watched her blush before looking around at the others. After a moment Mari started laughing "yeah I remember it. Kind of. I think i drank just a little bit too much that night." They all laughed as Asuma got some sakazuki out handing one to each of them before pouring some sake into them.

Three hours later-

Mari giggled slightly as she won another round of poker, this had been her 5th time in a row and she saw that the others where all slightly speechless. "You are one lucky person sometimes." Genma said, she smiled slightly before looking around at them all her eyes sight slightly blurry from the sake. Kurenai had fallen asleep on the sofa next to Asuma, guy was passed out on the floor and raido was dying not to laugh at them all having not drunk as much as the rest of them.

Mari looked at Kakashi and giggled making him frown slightly. "Do you know what?" she said still looking at him. Kakashi looked at her "what?" _do I even want to know?_ He thought.

"I love you Kakashi." She said before giggling.

Genma and raido looked at each other before laughing, "She's brilliant when she's drunk." Genma said softly, he watched her get to her feet before falling on Kakashi.

"I don't think her and sake are a good combination."Kakashi said as he got to his feet, he took her hand and helped her up.

"Goodbye everyone." Mari said waving her arm at them all before looking at Kakashi.

She stumbled slightly as they reached the door and fell on him almost knocking him over.

Kakashi managed to grab her arm before she fell on the floor only to fall over himself. Mari giggled slightly as she fell on top of him; she looked him in the eyes for a while before being helped up by raido.

"I think it's time you went home Mari-san." He said trying not to laugh.

"Come on Mari-san." Kakashi said softly taking her arm gently as he led her to the door and left the apartment.

"You know I reckon those two will eventually end up together don't you? I've not seen Kakashi like that with anyone." Raido said looking around at the others. "I think I'm going to head home as well, we better get guy home."

Raido and Genma stepped forwards and took one of guys arms each before pulling him to his feet and heading to the door.]

-15 minutes later-

Mari looked over at Kakashi as they entered the apartment, she saw that he had already taken his mask off and smiled slightly before walking over and hugging him. Seeing the surprised look on his face she leaned forwards and kissed him on the mouth gently, Kakashi's eyes widened even more before he kissed her back his hand going to her hair.

He ran her hair through his fingers as he kissed her loving the feel of it in his hand, his other hand went to her shoulder and rubbed it slightly when he saw her close her eyes and deepen the kiss. _I never knew she felt the same way._ He thought. He sighed slightly as he was gently pushed backwards enough to fall on the sofa.

Kakashi pulled away from her as the kiss deepened, he looked at her closely before putting his hand on her cheek.

"Are you sure about this mari-chan?" he asked her looking her in the eye as he spoke.

"Yes." She said slightly breathlessly making him smile at her.

"Come on." He said softly before getting to his feet and bringing her up with him, he looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he walked towards the bedroom leading her behind him. She giggled slightly as they finally entered the room, their clothes were taken off quickly and both of them got what they had wanted for a while as they kissed falling down onto the bed Kakashi over mari.

_**a/n: i'l leave this bit to your imagination, don't really like writing those sorts of scenes.**_


	17. Chapter 17

hello everyone who has read and liked my story, i'm sorry that i haven't posted for a long time and i am hoping to update it soon.

i may have to put this up for adoption if anyone is interested please send me a PM.

sorry,

Golden priestess


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